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Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The (2009)
| directed by = Niels Arden Oplev | written by = Nikolaj Arcel; Rasmus Heisterberg | produced by = Anni Faurbye Fernandez; Lone Korslund; Ole Sondberg; Mikael Wallen; Soren Staermose | music by = Jacob Groth | cinematography = Eric Kress | edited by = Anne Osterud | distributed by = Yellow Bird Films ZDF Enterprises Nordisk Film | release date(s) = February 27th, 2009 | mpaa rating = | running time = 152 min. | country = Sweden | language = Swedish | budget = $13,000,000 IMDB; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009); Box office & business | gross revenue = SEK 109,149,013 (Sweden) $10,095,170 (US) $104,395,170 (Worldwide) | preceded by = | followed by = The Girl Who Played With Fire (2009) }} The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a Swedish film of the mystery and thriller genres. It is based on the novel Män som hatar kvinnor, authored by Stieg Larsson in 2005. The movie has yielded two sequels in Sweden called The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, as well as an American remake in 2011. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was directed by Niels Arden Oplev and written by Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg. It was produced by Yellow Bird Films, ZDF Enterprises and Nordisk Film and released theatrically on February 27th, 2009. The film stars Noomi Rapace as the titular Lisbeth Salander (The girl with the dragon tattoo) and Michael Nyqvist as investigative reporter Mikael Blomkvist. Plot Mikael & Lisbeth Mikael Blomkvist is a reporter for a magazine in Sweden called Millennium. After publishing a story accusing industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerstrom of gun-smuggling, Blomkvist is sued for libel and loses his court case. He is ordered to report to prison in two months time to serve out a three-year sentence. As a result, Blomkvist decides to distance himself from Millennium and spend time with his family. Lisbeth Salander is a young Gothic punk computer hacker with a troubled past. Due to her history of crime and violence she is the ward of a state-appointed guardian named Nils Bjurman. Bjurman is more strict than Lisbeth's previous guardian and maintains control over her finances, only giving her an allowance based upon sexual favors. When Lisbeth needs money for a new laptop, Bjurman forces her to perform fellatio on him in his office. Later, she comes to his home for more money, but is armed with a camera secreted secreted away inside her belongings. Bjurman handcuffs her to his bed and brutally rapes her. Lisbeth shambles home in immense pain, but returns the following day and turns the tables on him. She beats him down, strips off his clothes, ties him up and shoves a dildo into his rectum while making him watch the video footage she recorded of the night before. She then tells him that she will take the footage to the police and to the press unless he relinquishes control over her finances to her. The Vanger family Henrik Vanger is an elderly man and one of the senior members of the Vanger Group - a powerful financial institution run by his entire family. He lives on the secluded island of Hedeby. Henrik has always lamented the disappearance of his niece, Harriet Vanger, whom he believed had been murdered some forty years earlier. Every year for his birthday, Henrik receives a flower pressed into a frame as a gift. He believes that it is sent by her killer as a means of tormenting him. Through his lawyer, Dirch Frode, Henrik learns about Mikael Blomkvist. He hires him to come out to his estate to investigate the murder of his beloved niece. Blomkvist only has a few weeks in which to solve the crime. The reason Henrik hires him is because Blomkvist's father used to work for him. Harriet even babysat for Mikael when he was a small boy and he has pleasant memories of her. Henrik gives Mikael the rundown of all of his family members currently living on the estate, confident that one of them is Harriet's killer. The most obvious suspect among them is the surly recluse, Harald. Henrik also speaks of his late brother Gottfried's surviving children - Harriet's brother, Martin and his cousin, Cecelia. There was another cousin named Anita - Harriet's sister, who died many years earlier. Researching the case Mikael researches the last time that anyone had seen Harriet. She was last seen in a photograph standing on the street watching a Children's Day parade. This took place on the same day that a disastrous traffic accident took place on the only bridge linking the island to the mainland. After conducting interviews with Martin and Cecelia, Blomkvist tries to get more information from police chief Gustav Morell, who originally investigated Harriet's disappearance forty years ago. While looking through Harriet's room on the Vanger estate, Mikael comes upon her Bible, which has inside of it a piece of paper listing five names and what appears to be telephone numbers. Meanwhile, Lisbeth learns about Blomkvist from a prior assignment she had been conducting during Mikael's libel suit. She is fascinated by him and believes that he has been wrongfully accused. She hacks into Mikael's computer and comes upon the information he has been compiling on the Vanger case. Mikael eventually discovers this and tracks the trail back to Salander. Approaching her in her apartment, he asks her why a professional computer hacker would leave such an obvious trail behind. Lisbeth remains rigid in her demeanor, but Blomkvist is intrigued by her and decides to hire her on as his research assistant. Using her access to Blomkvist's computer, Salander learns that the numbers in Harriet's diary are references to verses in the Book of Leviticus. The passages relate to crimes against women. They continue investigating the matter and discover that the names in the Bible are women who were brutally murdered. All of the murders took place prior to Harriet Vanger's disappearance. They find that the women were all of Jewish ancestry which links back to the Vanger family's past association with the Nazi party. During this stage of their work together, Lisbeth emboldens herself and enters Blomkvist's room late at night. She takes off her top and mounts him despite Mikael's obvious nervousness. Finding the killer Mikael and Lisbeth begin to suspect Henrik's reclusive brother Harald to be the murderer, as he is the only other surviving sibling with ties to the Nazis. Salander searches through Vanger's business records in an effort to trace Harald to the crime scenes, while Blomkvist breaks into Harald's house, believing it to be unoccupied. A raving Harald appears in his night clothes, brandishing a shotgun. He points it at Mikael's throat, barking that he has the right to kill him, when Martin Vanger arrives and talks Harald down. Martin then brings Mikael back to this cottage to dress his injuries. As Mikael thanks him and talks about the case, he asks Martin what he was doing at Harald's to begin with. Martin responds by drugging Blomkvist, rendering him unconscious. In the meantime, Salander's search of the company accounts points to Martin and his late father, Gottfried, having been jointly responsible for the murders. She returns to the cottage to find Blomkvist missing. Blomkvist awakens to find himself bound to a chair in Martin's cellar. Martin brags about raping and murdering women for decades, but denies killing Harriet, insisting that she disappeared before he had the opportunity. Now having revealed himself, he has little choice but to kill Mikael. He begins strangling him, but Lisbeth appears and attacks Martin with a golf club. While she frees Blomkvist, Martin flees in his car. Salander gives chase on her motorcycle. Martin drives his car off the road and Salander finds him trapped in the wreckage but still alive. The car goes up in flames. She stands stoically and watches, making no effort to save him. Mikael meanwhile realizes that Cecilia's late sister Anita was the near-double of Harriet, and that some of the photographs taken on the day of Harriet's disappearance show Anita, not Harriet as previously thought. Blomkvist and Salander discover not only that Harriet has been using Anita's name, but she is still alive in Australia. Blomkvist flies to the Australian Outback and finds her amongst a group of sheep herders. He learns the truth about Harriet's disappearance: that her father and her brother had repeatedly raped her; that she killed her father by drowning him only to find herself being blackmailed by Martin; and that her cousin Anita had smuggled her away from the island. Blomkvist persuades her to return to Sweden, where she is reunited with her uncle. Salander visits Blomkvist in prison and gives him new information on the Wennerström case. Immediately after being released, Blomkvist uses Lisbeth's informtion and puts together a new story on Wennerström in Millennium, which ruins Wennerström and makes the magazine a national sensation. Wennerström is soon found dead. His offshore bank account in the Cayman Islands is raided; the police suspect a young woman caught on CCTV, whom Mikael recognizes as Salander in disguise. Lisbeth, dressed in nice clothes, a long blonde wig and no piercings, exits her car and walks along a sunny beach promenade. Cast Appearances * * Sweden :* Stockholm :* Hedeby :* Hedestad * Australia (Briefly) :* Australian Outback * * Businessman * Police officer * Prison guard * Reporter * 1960s * 1966 * 2000s * Rape * Sheep Notes * Copyright holder: Yellow Bird Millennium Rights, 2009. * Production on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo began on February 26th, 2008. * This is the first film in the "Millennium Trilogy". * The original Swedish title for this film is, Män som hatar kvinnor. Fun Facts Recommendations See also External Links * * * The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at Wikipedia * * * References Keywords Computer hacker; Computer hacking; Female rear nudity; Female topless nudity; Male partial nudity; Mystery; Swedish films; Thriller ---- Category:Films Category:2000s/Films Category:2009/Films Category:February, 2009/Films Category:Based on a novel Category:Theatrically released films Category:1st installments Category:Remade Category:Swedish films Category:G/Films Category:Noomi Rapace/Actor Category:Films with plot summaries